


Love Equation

by jishiny (orphan_account)



Series: nana's minsung works [1]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Cute, Falling In Love, Fluff, How Do I Tag, Learning Disabilities, M/M, Tutoring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 19:24:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16816909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/jishiny
Summary: -“Look,” Jisung swallowed the lump in his throat, “I can’t even recognize half of these numbers”Drills and more drills in his early life had taught him the numbers from 1 to 10. But that’s it. He could add those, any more and he was lost. Reading the time, calculating change, and all the more were things that he avoided doing, simply because he knew he wasn’t able to. It wasn't his fault, it was dyscalculia’s [...]-





	Love Equation

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have much to say this time lol, the name for this doc on my drive was "i project on Jisung for a change" and if you know me, [flips hair] you know that's always.
> 
> aka numbers are unreal and i can't understand them but that's okay and let's talk more about learning disabilities  
> aka 2 i wrote this on sobbing impulse three days ago bc i couldn't figure out how old my brother was turning without using a calculator and needed validation and only remembered to edit it today

🌧️

He was getting a tutor.

He was getting a tutor and there was no way around it, there was no avoiding it.

He had been constantly cornered by all his teachers to try and find a math tutor to help him, but it was never mandatory, just ‘ _ maybe you could _ ’s. But now? With his grades barely floating above the surface of what was needed and his year being at risk of being repeated to low grades in math was the last straw - so he got a tutor.

Or better speaking, a tutor got him. As in someone from his class wanted extra credits and the teacher suggested  _ ‘offering’  _ a tutoring to Jisung. As in he’s the best student in the class, everyone loves him and he is tutoring him either Jisung wants it or not. As in sitting right on his floor, cross-legged, toes digging in the soft caramel carpet as they started his whole year over in maths.

But Jisung was getting none of it. Whenever the other boy asked if he had understood or if it was clear, he always nodded, too afraid to say  _ ‘no’  _ because truly? What were numbers anyway?

They didn’t make any sense, and all the formulas and calculations he had spread on papers and more papers in front of him looked as though they were hieroglyphs,

“Look,” Jisung swallowed the lump in his throat, “I can’t even recognize half of these numbers” Drills and more drills in his early life had taught him the numbers from 1 to 10. But that’s it. He could add those, any more and he was lost. Reading the time, calculating change, and all the more were things that he avoided doing, simply because he knew he wasn’t able to. It wasn't his fault, it was dyscalculia’s,

“Hmmmm” Minho hummed and put a pencil to his cheek, hitting it while squinting his eyes at Jisung, “Anything different I can do to help?”

“I…” He trailed off, voice ghosting out, “I was taught using Montessori materials as a child, anything more complicated than that doesn’t work for me” He admitted with a blush, would Minho think he was stupid? Would it be okay to admit so much? What would the top student in maths think of him for not being able to calculate what 36 minus 18 was without writing it down and several seconds of patience?

“Oh shoot, I don’t have that. But we do at school, maybe we can have our next session there?” He asked with a smile, suddenly sitting upright on the floor, excited he may have found an actual way to help (he had noticed Jisung was very uncomfortable since the beginning and it almost looked as though he was too afraid to admit his difficulties), all the while not noticing the way Jisung’s eyes widened in surprise, there was a mist on them but he was not going to cry in front of his tutor.

“Yeah but, do you think you can make this-” he pointed to all the papers in front of them, “-work with  _ that _ ?” There was a limit to what those materials were able to teach, wasn’t there? There was a limit to what Minho could actually help using children’s learning toys, right?

Jisung was suddenly feeling very self-conscious and his anxiety felt like a cold blanket had been wrapped over him, was this okay? Was Minho actively understanding his difficulty and being willing to work around it with no further questioning? Wasn’t he feeling pity for Jisung? Doubting he was perhaps lying so he could get around the complicated work? Those things were things he was used to anyways,

“I’m sure  _ we  _ can make it work” The way Minho’s eyes shifted to crescent moons and his lips formed a huge smile made Jisung suddenly want to believe he could make it work and trust Minho.

☁️

“Oh” His lips kept the ‘o’ shape seconds after the word left them, his eyes widened and chest closed in on a gasp, “I get it?!” He said surprised, running his eyes around the papers frantically, wanting to make sure he hadn't gotten anything wrong,

"Oh, yeah! That's right!" Minho smiled at him brightly from where he was watching on Jisung's shoulder, the younger only now noticing he was even there, and immediately missing the warmth he had before when he moved away,

"But..." Jisung was adamant he must have gotten  _ something _ wrong, it felt weird to him that he had actually solved that complicated problem alone. He had memorized the formula due to a mantra using the initials from the equation Minho had thought him (the older was pleasantly surprised he had memorized it in under a few minutes, much quicker than he had himself).

Minho had spent countless nights trying to make the Montessori materials work for the equations, Jisung had gotten quite attached to them and it would be easier for him to develop a way Jisung could understand or at least memorize the equations and the steps to solve them using the materials (and some extra props and different ways to count on fingers he had learned on youtube) than it was for Jisung to keep tiring himself out and frying his brain on useless drills that didn’t work for him that the teachers used at school.

"You got it right Jisung, you didn't even make a single mistake" If there was a feeling Minho felt at the moment, it was pride. And another mushy soft sticky one he couldn't name when Jisung looked at him wide-eyed, lips parted in surprise, his chest revealing he was holding his breath, waiting for Minho to say he was joking and he hadn't actually gotten it right, but when Minho took the lime green sparkly pen he kept around and made a gigantic 'correct' sign over his equation, Jisung's eyes got watery and Minho decided to pull him into a hug and let the younger use his neck as a safe deposit for his tears.

🌥️

It's not with a lot of surprise that Jisung realizes he is crushing on the older. He has a lot of problems with numbers and the sorts but he's quite exceptional in all other subjects (not counting the few slips in physics when the teacher decided to put more numbers than letters on the whiteboard), so he understood quite quickly  _ that  _ matter.

Minho had done a lot for him. He knew he had volunteered because of his wanting extra credit, but no extra credit covered the weekends where Jisung spent at his house when they would go out for ice cream, take a stroll at the parks and downtown and come back home and watch cartoons until it got late (Jisung was a night owl anyways, and tiring his body out always made him think better, especially when the faint light of the stars burning bright millions and millions of light years away shone from the spaces between his curtains and reflected on Jisung's eyes, his button nose and his concentrated lips in a line)

It was not with much surprise either that Minho realizes he's crushing too. He had noticed way before Jisung himself the way the younger looked at him, there was a warmth that before was not there and despite not knowing the name for that either he knew it was something of the love sorts. He quickly fell for him too.

He fell for the way he  _ always _ cried happily and proudly when he got a problem right, he fell for the way Jisung would pout and shake his head right away when he got something wrong, erasing the problems dutifully and once in a while he would let his thoughts escape his lips, mutters of  _ "It's okay, I'll get it right next time" _ drowning his conscience.

Minho knew there was only so much he could do for the younger, and he absolutely hated giving up on a problem just because it was too hard or just because he had repeated the same mistake three times now, or just because it was nearing 1am and they had school in less than 6 hours but Jisung  _ refused _ to leave the problem be and Minho knew better than to fall asleep on him working, instead watching with careful sleepy eyes as Jisung's pencil wrote on the abused piece of paper (He had gotten something wrong on the very few first lines of the equation, Jisung's mind not being able to work on more than a problem on the equation at a time, but he would let him finish it before giving him a tip and reminding him of something he may have forgotten)

The equations were complicated enough on their own, top that with a learning disability and you got yourself quite some numeric torture. But it was okay, he knew Jisung was capable, he just needed some extra time, he just needed to ‘ _ understand’ _ what to do next, the rules of maths being drilled enough into his head he knew just what he had to do despite not knowing what it meant. Minho thought it was probably like playing an instrument, being requested to follow the rhythm, the chords, but not being able to read them neither knowing where was each and what they sounded like.

But he made it work, often times Jisung's brain would be so fried he wouldn't be able to do the simple maths on his fingers, so he would tap Minho's knee, being greeted by a low hum from his own shoulder (Minho's favorite watching spot) and then being prompted something like, "What's 17 minus 9?" Minho would always look at him for a second too long, trying to decide if Jisung was only being lazy or embarrassed (he would always avoid eye contact then) to count on his fingers or when he was desperate enough to find the answers but his brain was just not cooperating (he would have glossy eyes then, frowned eyebrows questioning why he couldn't do the simple math, lips either being bitten or on that unflattering line shape of concentration),

"Eight" He kissed his cheek with affection, softly, lips barely tasting the tan skin there before he met eyes with a wide-eyed Jisung looking at him curiously. He didn't question the kiss, but he thought maybe it was Minho's way of comforting him.

🌤️

It's after their final maths test that Jisung invites Minho out for ice cream through a text, Minho had this nervous feeling boiling acid inside his stomach, hoping the younger had done well in it (he really needed those grades)

And it's with pure surprise and affection that Minho is greeted on the door of the ice cream parlor by a smiling impossibly wide Jisung holding his test up, a '72' marking his grade in a red color. It wasn't a great grade but it was just above what Jisung needed to have a green card for their next year. 

Minho's heart swelled and exploded with pride for the younger, not being able to produce any words but managing to envelop the younger on his arms for a crushing hug, hearing Jisung's excited giggle on his ear and the rumbles of the sound coming from his chest being crushed by his own. Minho thinks he never hugged anyone this hard, neither for this much, only pulling away after he felt Jisung's warm tears on his neck dry and the boy to hum contently and breathe in deep calmly, (they had attracted a few stares from the people around, but he couldn't really care),

"Congratulations Ji! You did well" Minho ruffled his hair and almost gasped surprised at how soft it was despite always being messily falling over his eyes and angrily brushed once in a while (it was a habit of Jisung’s to run his hands through his hair and even tug at it when he felt too frustrated)

"It's thanks to you" Jisung left his comfort space on his neck, eyes still a bit glossy and pink, skin radiating emotions, and the sun shone just right on his profile, casting beautiful shades of warm across the face Minho was getting quickly attached to seeing smile,

"Nope" He planted a kiss on his nose, a noisy  _ 'mwah'  _ as Jisung giggled and stepped back from their crushing distance, "It's all on you" Jisung didn't fight him on the matter, instead accepted the compliment with a deep breath and a gentle smile, pronouncing all that he couldn't say with a simple tug of his lips.

"Come on, I'll pay for your ice cream as a thanks" Minho whooped loudly in the streets making Jisung snort and throw his head back in a gentle laugh, quickly hugging the boy from his behind, arms over his shoulders as Jisung struggled to lead them to a booth on the end of the shop. Maybe Minho stumbled a few steps and nearly tripped over Jisung's own feet, maybe the younger whined about him being heavy over his back and Minho just shrugged it off.

Maybe he was indeed in love with Han Jisung, but they would figure that out another time.

In the end, love isn’t at all that complicated anyway.

☀️

**Author's Note:**

> they say if you send me something cute enough [ here ](http://skzwriting.tumblr.com) i'll write it
> 
> peace~


End file.
